# Quotes about youth

- Quotes: 250
- Authors: 151
- Narrower topics: [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.json

## Quotes

> Purple light of youth.

[Virgil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil.md) · [The Aeneid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/purple-light-of-youth.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Blessings on your young courage, boy; that's the way to the stars.

[Virgil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil.md) · [The Aeneid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/blessings-on-your.md)

Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The young have the ability, but lack the wisdom, and the old have the wisdom, but lack the ability.

[José Saramago](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago.md) · [The Cave](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-cave.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-cave/the-young-have.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> Pointing to a pile of dust, that had collected, I foolishly begged to have as many anniversaries of my birth, as were represented by the dust. But I forgot to ask that the years should be accompanied by youth.

[Ovid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ovid.md) · [Metamorphoses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ovid/metamorphoses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ovid/metamorphoses/pointing-to-a-pile.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> In youth alone, unhappy mortals live;
>
> But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive:
>
> Discolored sickness, anxious labor, come,
>
> And age, and death's inexorable doom.

[Virgil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil.md) · [The Georgics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-georgics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-georgics/in-youth-alone.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> Ah, lovely boy, trust not too much to your bloom!

[Virgil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil.md) · [The Eclogues](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-eclogues.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-eclogues/ah-lovely-boy.md)

Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is the most foolish of all errors for young people of good intelligence to imagine that they will forfeit their originality if they acknowledge truth already acknowledged by others.

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe.md) · [Maxims and Reflections](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/maxims-and-reflections/it-is-the.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Essays](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-essays/young-men-are.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself keeps you feeling young.”

[Betty White](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-white.md) · [If You Ask Me](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-white/if-you-ask-me.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-white/if-you-ask-me/kindness-and-consideration.md)

Topics: [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> But Abraham believed, therefore he was young; for he who always hopes for the best becomes old, and he who is always prepared for the worst grows early, but he who believes preserves an eternal youth.

[Sören Kierkegaard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard.md) · [Fear and Trembling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/but-abraham-believed.md)

Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Fools and young men prate about everything being possible for a man. That, however, is a great error. Spiritually speaking, everything is possible, but in the world of the finite there is much which is not possible.

[Sören Kierkegaard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard.md) · [Fear and Trembling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling.md) · p. 54 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/fools-and-young.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.

[Sören Kierkegaard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard.md) · [Either/Or](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror/old-age-realizes.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
>
> But to be young was very heaven!

[William Wordsworth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth.md) · [The Prelude](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude/bliss-was-it-in-that.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> Many are our joys
>
> In youth, but oh! what happiness to live
>
> When every hour brings palpable access
>
> Of knowledge, when all knowledge is delight,
>
> And sorrow is not there!

[William Wordsworth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth.md) · [The Prelude](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude/many-are-our.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> I was young then, and much more courteous to older people — and to everyone else, for that matter, as I look back on it — than I should have been. Also, I had not yet found out about time; I was still under the illusion that I had plenty of time — time for this, time for that, time for everything, time to waste.

[Joseph Mitchell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell.md) · [Joe Gould's Secret](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/joe-goulds-secret.md) · p. 127 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/joe-goulds-secret/i-was-young.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The mind of youth eagerly catches at promised pleasure: pure and innocent by nature, it thinks not of the dangers lurking beneath those pleasures, till too late to avoid them.

[Susanna Rowson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-rowson.md) · [Charlotte Temple](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-rowson/charlotte-temple.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-rowson/charlotte-temple/the-mind-of-youth.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “It’s good being young,” he said, “but some people wear it better than others.”

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Nemesis Games](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games.md) · p. 432 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games/its-good-being.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> She could remember the girl she used to be with fondness, but it wasn’t a youth she cared to recapture.

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Nemesis Games](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games.md) · p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games/she-could-remember.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md)

> “Age,” Quentin heard him mutter. “It’s wasted on the young. Just like youth.”

[Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magicians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians.md) · p. 162 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/age-quentin-heard.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> And I wasn’t old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.

[Naomi Novik](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik.md) · [Uprooted](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/uprooted.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/uprooted/and-i-wasnt.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The wind and sun, the salt water, the hard work aged a body rapidly, and when I would look at the old man who clammed, I was too young to sense the wisdom their years on the water had bestowed upon them and saw only what I did not want to become.

[Jeffrey Ford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford.md) · [The Empire of Ice Cream](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-empire-of-ice-cream.md) · p. 307 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-empire-of-ice-cream/the-wind-and.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> Filidor marveled at the intransigence of adolescence, not remembering that he had possessed an abundance of the same quality not many years since.

[Matt Hughes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes.md) · [Fool Me Twice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice.md) · p. 355 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice/filidor-marveled-at-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It was easy for someone to stay young if he refused to learn, refused to adapt to his lot in life, and refused to fight to change his circumstances in accordance with his will.

[Sigrid Undset](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset.md) · [The Cross](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross.md) · p. 287 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/it-was-easy.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [personal growth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/personal-growth.md)

> In his student days he was known for a sharp slanderous tongue, for irreverence to his seniors, for drinking and gaming for high stakes. But who would hold up his head, if people judged us by what we were like at twenty?

[Hilary Mantel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel.md) · [Wolf Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall.md) · p. 451 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/in-his-student.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened. (p. 263)

[Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Moving Pictures](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures/inside-every-old.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> You may have all the money in the world, Mr. Hobbs, I thought, you might own the whole universe and its particles thereof, you might gain interest on the stars and reap dividends from the moon, but I'm young and you're old and I have something you don't - a future.

[Steve Toltz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz.md) · [A Fraction Of The Whole](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/you-may-have.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md), [wealth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth.md)

> We had come from lecture halls, school desks and factory workbenches, and over the brief weeks of training, we had bonded together into one large and enthusiastic group. Grown up in an age of security, we shared a yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary. We were enraptured by war.

[Ernst Jünger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger.md) · [Storm of Steel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger/storm-of-steel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger/storm-of-steel/we-had-come.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Like young men from the dawn of time, I decided to choose the risk of death over certain humiliation.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Whispers Under Ground](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/whispers-under-ground.md) · p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/whispers-under-ground/like-young-men.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [shame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/shame.md)

> Young Isaac had dreamed of fame.
>
> Young Isaac was an idiot.

[Jim C. Hines](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines.md) · [Revisionary](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary/young-isaac-had.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> They were old enough to know such things were forbidden, yet young enough still to find the forbidden irresistible rather than terrifying.

[Ian Tregillis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis.md) · [The Mechanical](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical/they-were-old.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> "But it is the old story of new generations refusing to be bound by the promises of their forefathers."

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [Sleepers of Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/sleepers-of-mars.md) · p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/sleepers-of-mars/but-it-is-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [tradition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.md)

> "I suppose one could scarcely have had innocence and experience. Being young is very exhausting and unsatisfactory, really—although it looks so nice."

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [Jizzle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/jizzle.md) · p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/jizzle/i-suppose-one.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> There was no readiness for soldiering in this truck, no stern and cocky welcoming of challenges. They sounded - oh, Mother of God - they sounded like children.

[Richard Yates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates.md) · [A Good School](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/a-good-school.md) · p. 165 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/a-good-school/there-was-no-readiness.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is not clear to me whether the insouciance of youth will be the doom of humanity or its salvation. I prefer to think the latter, but I have my doubts.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [Starfire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/starfire.md) · p. 446 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/starfire/it-is-not.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> One thing you have to teach the young is that it’s wrong to run away from problems.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [The Compleat McAndrew](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew.md) · p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew/one-thing-you.md)

Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> That’s the trouble with the younger generation. They don’t understand why a thing can’t be done, so they go ahead and do it.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [The Compleat McAndrew](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew.md) · p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew/thats-the-trouble.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> He was still young enough to hate looking like a fool more than anything in the world.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [Proteus Unbound](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/proteus-unbound.md) · p. 419 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/proteus-unbound/he-was-still.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride-2.md)

> Well. You were allowed to be young and stupid, when you were young and stupid, and if it didn’t do you in, you might get older and wiser.

[Steve Perry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry.md) · [The Vastalimi Gambit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-vastalimi-gambit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-vastalimi-gambit/well-you-were.md)

Topics: [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> Old enough to look as if he knew what to do, young enough to look as if he could do it.

[Steve Perry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry.md) · [The Tejano Conflict](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-tejano-conflict.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-tejano-conflict/old-enough-to-look.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md)

> Young soldiers had a lot of expectations and fantasies about how it would be and what they would do and feel. Invariably wrong, those expectations.

[Steve Perry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry.md) · [The Ramal Extraction](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-ramal-extraction.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-ramal-extraction/young-soldiers-had.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [soldiers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soldiers.md)

> Hold the period of youth sacred to education, and the period of maturity, when the physical forces begin to flag, equally sacred to ease and agreeable relaxation.

[Edward Bellamy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy.md) · [Looking Backward](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy/looking-backward.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-bellamy/looking-backward/hold-the-period.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> I was twenty-one at the time, about to turn twenty-two. No prospect of graduating soon, and yet no reason to quit school. Caught in the most curiously depressing circumstances. For months I'd been stuck, unable to take one step in any new direction. The world kept moving on; I alone was at a standstill. In the autumn, everything took on a desolate cast, the colors swiftly fading before my eyes. The sunlight, the smell of the grass, the faintest patter of rain, everything got on my nerves.

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [A Wild Sheep Chase](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase/i-was-twenty-one.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [depression](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/depression.md)

> Maybe one day I’ll be able to live somewhere with a garden. I’ll be old but skilled enough to still have some consultancy work to pay for the space to grow real food. Hands in the dirt again. Doing something real. No people around. Yeah, that’s the dream. Strange how the things we rail against and hate in our youth can be the things we crave as we get older.

[Emma Newman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman.md) · [After Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas.md) · p. 48 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas/maybe-one-day.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [garden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/garden.md)

> I made a mistake when I was young and didn’t know how the world worked and I have paid for it. Many, many times over.

[Emma Newman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman.md) · [After Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas.md) · p. 329 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas/i-made-a-mistake.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md)

> Late hours, nocturnal cigars, and midnight drinkings, pleasurable through they may be, consume too quickly the free-flowing lamps of youth, and are fatal at once to the husbanded candle-ends of age.

[Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [Phineas Redux](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux/late-hours-nocturnal.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> They scolded us for not having any real hopes or real ambitions, but if we were to pursue our true ideals, would these people watch and guide us along the way?

[Osamu Dazai](https://www.leafyquotes.com/osamu-dazai.md) · [Schoolgirl](https://www.leafyquotes.com/osamu-dazai/schoolgirl.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/osamu-dazai/schoolgirl/they-scolded-us-for.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md)

> Well, I suppose we have to have young intellectuals, if we’re ever to survive to be middle-aged philosophers.

[Algis Budrys](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys.md) · [Some Will Not Die](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys/some-will-not-die.md) · p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys/some-will-not-die/well-i-suppose.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md)

> He has little appetite for banter. He knows the dangers of the path I have chosen to walk, and he doubts me because the old do not remember the necessities of youth. They see only the years on our horizon to which they think we are entitled. But we are entitled only to the moment, and owe nothing to the future except that we follow our convictions.

[Pierce Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown.md) · [Dark Age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age/he-has-little.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> No one ever took music away from me, but I’m damned if it ever sounds quite as good as it used to when I was twenty.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Century Rain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain.md) · p. 555 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain/no-one-ever.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [music](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md)

> “Not safe?” I asked, all innocence. “Surely it isn’t illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.”

[Ann Leckie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-leckie.md) · [Ancillary Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-leckie/ancillary-justice.md) · p. 315 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-leckie/ancillary-justice/not-safe-i-asked.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> I was propelled, of course, by the traditional forces that had sent many generations along this road - by the small tight valley closing in around one, stifling the breath with its mossy mouth, the cottage walls narrowing like the arms of an iron maiden, the local girls whispering, ‘Marry, and settle down.’

[Laurie Lee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee.md) · [As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/as-i-walked-out-one-midsummer-morning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/as-i-walked-out-one-midsummer-morning/i-was-propelled.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Youth offers the promise of happiness, but life offers the realities of grief.

[Nicholas Sparks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks.md) · [The Rescue](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-rescue.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-rescue/youth-offers-the.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [grief](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/grief.md)

> A youth loathes nothing more than his own callowness. Experience is his object. Experience, however ghastly, for the lad longs before all for the lined face and the chiseled squint of the vetern.

[Steven Pressfield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pressfield.md) · [Last of the Amazons](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pressfield/last-of-the-amazons.md) · p. 91 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pressfield/last-of-the-amazons/a-youth-loathes.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md)

> The Beater has still been young enough to feel immortal, at least on his better days. It was all, Wow, if we don’t slow down, we’re gonna die before we get old, except somehow it hadn’t happened that way. So they’d all assumed it never would, not dying, not getting old—hell, not even growing up.

[Pat Cadigan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan.md) · [Synners](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/synners.md) · p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/synners/the-beater-has.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Feast for Crows](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows/every-man-should.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md)

> I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivlary. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young.

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Storm of Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/i-am-speaking.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md)

> Men die in war, even men who are young and strong.

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Storm of Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/men-die-in-war.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> How could you do this, Robb. How could you be so heedless, so stupid? How could you be so ... so ... very ... young?

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Storm of Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/how-could-you.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Boys believe nothing can hurt them, his doubt whispered. Grown men know better.

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Clash of Kings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/boys-believe-nothing.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Barnaby Rudge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/barnaby-rudge.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/barnaby-rudge/father-time-is-not.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> They’ll be fine, and wiser for the experience. Young minds are brittle. Oldsters, now, we’ve had some disappointments. We’ve set aside the notion that we’re the center of the universe, so our minds bend with strain instead of meeting it head-on.

[Scott Lynch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch.md) · [The Republic of Thieves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-republic-of-thieves.md) · p. 184 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-republic-of-thieves/theyll-be-fine.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> You can’t help being young, but it’s past time that you stopped being stupid.

[Scott Lynch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch.md) · [The Lies of Locke Lamora](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-lies-of-locke-lamora.md) · p. 121 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-lies-of-locke-lamora/you-cant-help.md)

Topics: [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> There was the normal high that comes from the hormones of youth, that fresh sense of being unchained. But also there was the omnipresent feeling that It could go down. In those moments—which back then were all of our moments—your neurology was always code red.

[Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ta-nehisi-coates.md) · [The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ta-nehisi-coates/the-beautiful-struggle-a-memoir.md) · p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ta-nehisi-coates/the-beautiful-struggle-a-memoir/there-was-the.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Very quickly I fell in with others like me—newcomers, dreamers, young people drawn to the city in spite of its dangers because sometimes, for some of us, tedium and familiarity feel worse than risking your life.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Broken Kingdoms](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-broken-kingdoms.md) · p. 71 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-broken-kingdoms/very-quickly-i-fell.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [city](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/city.md)

> Our lives were just beginning, our favorite moment was right now, our favorite songs were unwritten.

[Rob Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rob-sheffield.md) · [Love Is A Mix Tape](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rob-sheffield/love-is-a-mix-tape.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rob-sheffield/love-is-a-mix-tape/our-lives-were.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> There was such a dense concentration of energy there [Vietnam], American and essentially adolescent, if that energy could have been channeled into anything more than noise, waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years.

[Michael Herr](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr.md) · [Dispatches](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/there-was-such.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Men, whose span is cruelly short, rush nonetheless to death in their youth as to a maiden’s arms.

[Poul Anderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson.md) · [The Broken Sword](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-broken-sword.md) · p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-broken-sword/men-whose-span.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> She’d had so much more time when she was younger. She couldn’t help thinking she’d wasted much of it.

[Brandon Sanderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson.md) · [Words of Radiance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance.md) · p. 554 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance/shed-had-so-much.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Hence the purpose of education. To be young is about action. To be a scholar is about informed action.

[Brandon Sanderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson.md) · [The Way of Kings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings.md) · p. 462 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings/hence-the-purpose.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “The purpose of youth is to experience variety while it is still interesting.” She glanced at Dalinar. “It isn’t until we get older that we should be forced to be boring.”

[Brandon Sanderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson.md) · [The Way of Kings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings.md) · p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings/the-purpose-of-youth.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

[Muriel Spark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/muriel-spark.md) · [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/muriel-spark/the-prime-of-miss-jean-brodie.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/muriel-spark/the-prime-of-miss-jean-brodie/ones-prime-is-elusive.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Man, the period of whose life is one hundred years, should practise Dharma, Artha, and Kama at different times and in such a manner that they may harmonize, and not clash in any way. He should acquire learning in his childhood; in his youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, that is, release from further transmigration.

[Vatsyayana](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vatsyayana.md) · [Kama Sutra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vatsyayana/kama-sutra.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vatsyayana/kama-sutra/man-the-period.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Take this as a gift from a crone to a maiden, and know there is not so much difference between the two. For even a tottering granddam keeps a portion of girlish heart, and the youngest maiden a thread of old woman’s wisdom.

[Lloyd Alexander](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lloyd-alexander.md) · [The High King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lloyd-alexander/the-high-king.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lloyd-alexander/the-high-king/take-this-as-a-gift.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> We saw everything simple, as young men will. We had our angry, confident solutions, and whosoever would criticise them was a friend of the robbers. It was a clear case of robbery, we held, visibly so; there in those great houses lurked the Landlord and the Capitalist, with his scoundrel the Lawyer, with his cheat the Priest, and we others were all the victims of their deliberate villainies. No doubt they winked and chuckled over their rare wines, amidst their dazzling, wickedly-dressed women, and plotted further grinding for the faces of the poor. And amidst all the squalor on the other hand, amidst brutalities, ignorance, and drunkenness, suffered multitudinously their blameless victim, the Working Man. And we, almost at the first glance, had found all this out, it had merely to be asserted now with sufficient rhetoric and vehemence to change the face of the whole world. The Working Man would arise — in the form of a Labour Party, and with young men like Parload and myself to represent them — and come to his own, and then — ?
>
> Then the robbers would get it hot, and everything would be extremely satisfactory.
>
> Unless my memory plays me strange tricks, that does no injustice to the creed of through and action that Parload and I held as the final result of human wisdom. We believed it with heat, and rejected with heat the most obvious qualifications of its harshness. At times in our great talks we were full of heady hopes for the near triumph of our doctrine, more often our mood was hot resentment at the wickedness and stupidity that delayed so plain and simple a reconstruction of the order of the world. Then we grew malignant, and thought of barricades and significant violence.

[H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [In the Days of the Comet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet/we-saw-everything.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [idealism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism.md)

> The adolescent years of any fairly intelligent youth lie open, and will always lie healthily open, to the contagion of philosophical doubts, or scorns and new ideas, and I will confess I had the fever of that phase badly. Doubt, I say, but it was not so much doubt — which is a complex thing — as startled emphatic denial. "Have I believed this!"

[H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [In the Days of the Comet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet/the-adolescent-years.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [doubt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt.md)

> When you do something young enough and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you.

[Randy Pausch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch.md) · [The Last Lecture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture/when-you-do-something.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md)

> "QUITE AN ORIGINAL:" A phrase, we fancy, rather oftener used by the young, or the unlearned, or the untraveled, than by the old, or the well-read, or the man who has made the grand tour. Certainly, the sense of originality exists at its highest in an infant, and probably at its lowest in him who has completed the circle of the sciences.

[Herman Melville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville.md) · [The Confidence-Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/the-confidence-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/the-confidence-man/quite-an-original.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.

[Erich Maria Remarque](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque.md) · [All Quiet on the Western Front](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/this-book-is.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.

[Erich Maria Remarque](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque.md) · [All Quiet on the Western Front](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md) · p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/we-are-not.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Beautiful is a word for young people. Beauty is a phase you grow through, like acne.

[Peter S. Beagle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle.md) · [A Fine and Private Place](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place.md) · p. 110 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place/beautiful-is-a-word.md)

Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> He looked at her again, now with the vague abject shyness that older men often have with young women, as though asking their indulgence for no longer being young.

[Stefan Zweig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig.md) · [The Post-Office Girl](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/the-post-office-girl.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/the-post-office-girl/he-looked-at-her.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> There is nothing that so raises a young man's self-esteem, that so contributes to the formation of his character as for him to find himself unexpectedly confronted with a task which he has to accomplish entirely on his own initiative and by his own efforts.

[Stefan Zweig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig.md) · [Beware of Pity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/there-is-nothing.md)

Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md)

> But it is the way of youth that each fresh piece of knowledge of life should go to its head, and that once uplifted by an emotion it can never have enough of it.

[Stefan Zweig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig.md) · [Beware of Pity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/but-it-is-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is a blessing not yet to have acquired that over-keen, diagnostic, misanthropic eye, and to be able to look at people and things trustfully when one first sees them.

[Stefan Zweig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig.md) · [Beware of Pity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/it-is-a-blessing.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [trust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trust.md)

> Every boy knows he is immortal, but his parents, they are not so sure.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Against Infinity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/against-infinity.md) · p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/against-infinity/every-boy-knows.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md)

> I’ll tell you somethin, Sheriff. Nineteen is old enough to know that if you have got somethin that means the world to you it’s all that more likely it’ll get took away. Sixteen was, for that matter. I think about that

[Cormac McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy.md) · [No Country for Old Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men/ill-tell-you.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [loss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss.md)

> Consider well the proportions of things. It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Pudd'nhead Wilson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/puddnhead-wilson.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/puddnhead-wilson/consider-well-the.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> He had some measure of the infuriating trait that causes a young man to be a nonconformist for its own sake and found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behavior were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one’s life accordingly.

[Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [The Diamond Age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age/he-had-some.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md)

> By the time they reached the hall, they were not so much friends as fellow-conspirators, for Youth, when it is exiled into the kingdoms of the old, at once turns itself into the strongest of secret societies.

[J.B. Priestley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jb-priestley.md) · [The Good Companions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jb-priestley/the-good-companions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jb-priestley/the-good-companions/by-the-time.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> If you, dear reader, are looking a this across some great gulf of time and increase of knowledge, spare me your condescension. You too were young once, and ignorant once, and from a future standpoint—perhaps your own—you are young and ignorant still.

[Ken MacLeod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod.md) · [Learning The World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world.md) · p. 358 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world/if-you-dear.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [ignorance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance.md)

> "If you're going to make your life in a new country you should go before you're twenty-five. After that you start to get associations, little grooves and anchors, that make it difficult to change."

[Nevil Shute](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nevil-shute.md) · [No Highway](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nevil-shute/no-highway.md) · p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nevil-shute/no-highway/if-youre-going.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [emigration](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration.md)

> A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.

[Frances Burney](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-burney.md) · [Evelina](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-burney/evelina.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-burney/evelina/a-youthful-mind.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md)

> Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.

[Lawrence Durrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-durrell.md) · [Clea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-durrell/clea.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-durrell/clea/like-all-young.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md), [laughter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter.md)

> What the world stigmatizes as romantic, is often more nearly allied to the truth than is commonly supposed; for, if the generous ideas of youth are too often over-clouded by the sordid views of after-life, that scarcely proves them to be false.

[Anne Brontë](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte.md) · [The Tenant of Wildfell Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/what-the-world.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [idealism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism.md)

> At your time of life, it's love that rules the roast: at mine, it's solid, serviceable gold.

[Anne Brontë](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte.md) · [The Tenant of Wildfell Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/at-your-time.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Blessed is he who has been young in his youth.

[Ivan Turgenev](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivan-turgenev.md) · [Rudin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivan-turgenev/rudin.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivan-turgenev/rudin/blessed-is-he-who.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> "David," said Mr. Murdstone, "to the young this is a world for action; not for moping and droning in."

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [David Copperfield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield/david-said-mr-murdstone.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [taking action](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action.md)

> Young men not being as a class remarkable for modesty or self-denial, especially when there is a lady in the case, when, if they colour at all, it is rather their practise to colour the story, and not themselves.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Nicholas Nickleby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby/young-men-not.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/men.md)

> Miss Knag still aimed at youth, although she had shot beyond it, years ago.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Nicholas Nickleby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby/miss-knag-still.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “That’s the duty of the old,” said the Librarian, “to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”

[Philip Pullman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman.md) · [Northern Lights: His Dark Materials 1](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/northern-lights-his-dark-materials-1.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/northern-lights-his-dark-materials-1/thats-the-duty.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> He had noted that with older people. They often try to control younger, more popular and vivacious people; usually due to the fact that they are jealous of the qualities the younger people have and they lack. These inadequacies are disguised with a benign, protective attitude.

[Irvine Welsh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/irvine-welsh.md) · [Trainspotting](https://www.leafyquotes.com/irvine-welsh/trainspotting.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/irvine-welsh/trainspotting/he-had-noted.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [jealousy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy.md)

> As a man grows older the memory of his youth begins to act as nothing less than an immunization against further experience. And he was thirty-eight. It was an age when one felt strangely unready to say that one had lived and yet reluctant to acknowledge the death of youth. An age when the savor of one’s experiences turned ever so slightly sour, and when, day by day, one took less pleasure in new things. An age when the charm of every diverting foolishness quickly faded.

[Yukio Mishima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima.md) · [Runaway Horses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/runaway-horses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/runaway-horses/as-a-man.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> How oddly situated a man is apt to find himself at the age of thirty-eight! His youth belongs to the distant past. Yet the period of memory beginning with the end of youth and extending to the present has left him not a single vivid impression. And therefore he persists in feeling that nothing more than a fragile barrier separates him from his youth. He is forever hearing with the utmost clarity the sounds of this neighboring domain, but there is no way to penetrate the barrier.

[Yukio Mishima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima.md) · [Runaway Horses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/runaway-horses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/runaway-horses/how-oddly-situated.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> "Nobody at twenty-eight is a success or a failure. It's too early to figure out which way the tide's moving (Malkah, fifteen: THE SAME AS ME)

[Marge Piercy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy.md) · [He, She and It](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it/nobody-at-twenty-eight.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [success and failure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure.md)

> He had once felt light on the ground. He used to think his life was an open-ended adventure, he used to give things away, it amused him when the unexpected happened, benevolent coincidences used to bear him along. When had all that stopped?

[Ian McEwan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcewan.md) · [The Child in Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcewan/the-child-in-time.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcewan/the-child-in-time/he-had-once.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> Your tears come easy , when you're young, and beginning the world. Your tears come easy, when you're old, and leaving it.

[Wilkie Collins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins.md) · [The Moonstone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone.md) · p. 86 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone/your-tears-come.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [sadness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness.md)

> A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it.

[Mary Renault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault.md) · [The King Must Die](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-king-must-die.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-king-must-die/a-man-is-at-his.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [taking action](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action.md)

> It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted.

[Charlotte Brontë](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte.md) · [Jane Eyre](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre/it-is-a-very.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> For a young man, sleep is a sure solvent of distress. There whirls not for him in the night any so hideous phantasmagoria as will not become, in the clarity of the next morning, a spruce procession for him to lead. Brief the vague horror of his awakening; memory sweeps back to him, and he sees nothing dreadful after all. "Why not?" is the sun’s bright message to him, and "Why not indeed?" his answer.”

[Max Beerbohm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-beerbohm.md) · [Zuleika Dobson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-beerbohm/zuleika-dobson.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-beerbohm/zuleika-dobson/for-a-young.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [optimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/optimism.md), [sleep](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sleep.md)

> Your brother is still young enough to believe that the past still exists, he said. That the injustices within it await his remedy.

[Cormac McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy.md) · [The Crossing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-crossing.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-crossing/your-brother-is-still.md)

Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md)

> In the rotation of crops there was a recognized season for wild oats; but they were not sown more than once.

[Edith Wharton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edith-wharton.md) · [The Age of Innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edith-wharton/the-age-of-innocence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edith-wharton/the-age-of-innocence/in-the-rotation.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> You are too calculating. Don't tell me you are young. Youth gives all it can: it gives itself without reserve.

[Josemaría Escrivá](https://www.leafyquotes.com/josemaria-escriva.md) · [The Way](https://www.leafyquotes.com/josemaria-escriva/the-way.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/josemaria-escriva/the-way/you-are-too.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [generosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity.md)

> Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!
>
> That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
>
> The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,
>
> Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!

[Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam.md) · [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/alas-that-spring.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> Dowling had long since abandoned optimism along with the other illusions of his youth.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [Settling Accounts: Drive to the East](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-drive-to-the-east.md) · p. 138 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-drive-to-the-east/dowling-had-long.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [optimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/optimism.md)

> Second Lieutenant Don Griffiths was typical of the breed. He was young, he didn’t know much, and one of the things he didn’t know was how much he didn’t know.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [Settling Accounts: Drive to the East](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-drive-to-the-east.md) · p. 368 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-drive-to-the-east/second-lieutenant-don.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [ignorance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance.md)

> He was still very young, young enough to believe in the tooth fairy, the common sense of Congress, and a great many other unlikelihoods.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [American Empire: Blood and Iron](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron.md) · p. 130 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/he-was-still.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [naivety](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/naivety.md)

> When you were fifteen, you knew everything always turned out fine in the end. Arthur McGregor was a good deal past twice fifteen. He knew how foolish you were at that age.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 71 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/when-you-were.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [naivety](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/naivety.md)

> The lad was at an age where he was inclined to believe things would turn out as he wanted for no better reason than that he wanted them to turn out so.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 70 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/the-lad-was.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [naivety](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/naivety.md)

> At sixteen, you knew you could do the impossible.
>
> At forty-three, you knew damn well you couldn’t.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 144 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/at-sixteen-you.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “What is the younger generation coming to?” she exclaimed: the cry of the older generation throughout recorded history.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 126 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/what-is-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> I did not scream or hug anyone. In fact, as the noise gained momentum, I felt its opposite, a draining of excitement. But not a draining of tension - my body was still stiff and alert, and the impulse I had, strangely, was to weep. Not because I was sad but because I was not happy, and yet, like my classmates, I'd experienced an emotional surge, I too felt the need for expression. This phenomenon -- being gripped by an overwhelming wave of feeling that was clearly not the feeling of the people around me -- had also happened at a pep rally: It made me uncomfortable, because I didn't want anyone to notice that I wasn't jumping up and down or cheering, and it also thrilled me, because it made the world seem full of possibilities that could make my heart pound. I think, looking back, that this was the single best thing about Ault, the sense of possibility… In my whole life, Ault was the place with the greatest density of people to fall in love with.

[Curtis Sittenfeld](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld.md) · [Prep](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld/prep.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld/prep/i-did-not.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [emotions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions.md)

> Hardly ever did it matter if you brushed your hair before driving to the grocery store, rarely did you work in an office where you cared what more than two or three people thought of you. At Ault, caring about everything was draining, but it was also exhilarating.

[Curtis Sittenfeld](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld.md) · [Prep](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld/prep.md) · p. 290 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/curtis-sittenfeld/prep/hardly-ever-did.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> As our sages have said, youth builds a universe with self at the center.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Fresco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco.md) · p. 358 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/as-our-sages.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md)

> “They won’t be sensible. All they will do is talk about how they have been wronged. Those jongau, they were also wronged. Bofusdiaga says creatures who think only of how they are wronged cannot help with the dance and everything is lost.”
>
> Questioner rubbed her head. “If you had asked me, Corojum, I could have told you that those people in the cave would be of no help. They are young, rebellious, and not at all useful. At that age, many young people spend a great deal of time thinking they have been wronged.”

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Six Moon Dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance.md) · p. 453 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/they-wont-be-sensible.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [resentment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/resentment.md)

> There is no innocence so deep as to veil the urgencies of the flesh from one’s own youthful awareness.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty.md) · p. 404 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty/there-is-no-innocence.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md), [sexual desire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sexual-desire.md)

> “Forgive my mentioning it. If you are like most young men, you hate having it mentioned.”
>
> Mavin could not help laughing. “I hate having it mentioned. Yes. Perhaps…” She paused a moment before going on, “it is because young people are not that sure they are competent.”
>
> “There is always that,” agreed the Seer. “But that feeling does not necessarily diminish with age. It is merely challenged less frequently. When one has over sixty years, as I do, then the world assumes we would not have survived without competence. With someone your age, it could always be sheer luck.”

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Song of Mavin Manyshaped](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-song-of-mavin-manyshaped.md) · p. 71 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-song-of-mavin-manyshaped/forgive-my-mentioning.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [self-confidence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-confidence.md)

> He looked upon the time that had been my future in a disturbing way. My future was his past, and being young, he was indifferent to the past.

[Russell Baker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker.md) · [Growing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up.md) · p. 14 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up/he-looked-upon.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md)

> I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases - viz. they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent. Not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men.

[Daniel Defoe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-defoe.md) · [Robinson Crusoe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-defoe/robinson-crusoe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-defoe/robinson-crusoe/i-have-since.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [sin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sin.md), [shame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/shame.md)

> Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.

[Mikhail Lérmontov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov.md) · [A Hero of Our Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time/many-a-calm.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "'My God, my God — ' I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.'" (p. 106)

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Slaughterhouse-Five](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/you-know-weve.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.

[Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [The Alchemist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist/at-that-point.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md)

> She tried, sometimes, to remember how it had been to be young. Or even, not quite so old.

[Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Ring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring.md) · p. 704 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring/she-tried-sometimes.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> They were happy years, the four I spent in Glasgow, for I was young and ardent, and had not yet suffered the grave miscarriage of hope which is our human lot.

[John Buchan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan.md) · [Salute to Adventurers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/they-were-happy.md)

Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> How ungenerously in later life we disclaim the virtuous moods of our youth, living in retrospect long, summer days of unreflecting dissipation. There is no candour in a story of early manhood which leaves out of account the home-sickness for nursery morality, the regrets and resolutions of amendment, the black hours which, like zero on the roulette table, turn up with roughly calculable regularity.

[Evelyn Waugh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh.md) · [Brideshead Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/brideshead-revisited.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/brideshead-revisited/how-ungenerously-in-later.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Humans are divided between those who can still look through the eyes of youth and those who cannot. Though it causes me frequent pain, I find it very easy to place myself in the shoes of almost any boy, and can conjure my own youth with an ease that is troublesome.

[Dave Eggers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers.md) · [What Is the What](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers/what-is-the-what.md) · p. 110 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers/what-is-the-what/humans-are-divided.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> All you are seeing is your own nostalgia for your girlhood trips up here into the hills, which were no doubt colored with the pleasantries of youth and idealism, which is—won’t you admit it?—finally just a form of ignorance.

[Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [Tales of Neveryon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon.md) · p. 76 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon/all-you-are.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md)

> The young know how truly difficult and dreadful youth can be. Their youth is wasted on everyone else, that's the horror. The young have no authority, no respect.

[Anne Rice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice.md) · [The Tale of the Body Thief](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice/the-tale-of-the-body-thief.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice/the-tale-of-the-body-thief/the-young-know.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It came upon me sometime in my fifteenth year that I no longer woke up with sudden excitements—“Today I will get the Clerici solution! Today I will read about Humphry Davy and electric fish! Today I will finally understand diamagnetism, perhaps!” I no longer seemed to get these sudden illuminations, these epiphanies, these excitements which Flaubert (whom I was now reading) called “erections of the mind.” Erections of the body, yes, this was a new, exotic part of life—but those sudden raptures of the mind, those sudden landscapes of glory and illumination, seemed to have deserted or abandoned me. Or had I, in fact, abandoned them?

[Oliver Sacks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-sacks.md) · [Uncle Tungsten](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-sacks/uncle-tungsten.md) · p. 310 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-sacks/uncle-tungsten/it-came-upon.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.

[Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [The Duke's Children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-dukes-children.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-dukes-children/speeches-easy-to-young.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Let her who is forty call herself forty; but if she can be young in spirit at forty, let her show that she is so.

[Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [The Small House at Allington](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-small-house-at-allington.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-small-house-at-allington/let-her-who.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Your generation, always want the capital letters, never the subtext. You don’t learn to read properly, that’s the trouble. And don’t start telling me you’ve accessed books. I’m talking about the real thing, good solid paper that you can hold in your hand, and bend the page corners the way you’re not supposed to.

[Peter F. Hamilton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton.md) · [Misspent Youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton/misspent-youth.md) · p. 236 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton/misspent-youth/your-generation-always.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The thing is this, Tim; you’re eighteen, forever is about a month at your age.

[Peter F. Hamilton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton.md) · [Misspent Youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton/misspent-youth.md) · p. 236 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-f-hamilton/misspent-youth/the-thing-is-this.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken. . . .

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [This Side of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/here-was-a-new.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> There was no God in his heart, he knew; his ideas were still in riot; there was ever the pain of memory; the regret for his lost youth — yet the waters of disillusion had left a deposit on his soul, responsibility and a love of life, the faint stirring of old ambitions and unrealized dreams.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [This Side of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/there-was-no-god.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> I simply state that I'm a product of a versatile mind in a restless generation — with every reason to throw my mind and pen in with the radicals. Even if, deep in my heart, I thought we were all blind atoms in a world as limited as a stroke of a pendulum, I and my sort would struggle against tradition; try, at least, to displace old cants with new ones. I've thought I was right about life at various times, but faith is difficult. One thing I know. If living isn't seeking for the grail it may be a damned amusing game.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [This Side of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/i-simply-state.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [tradition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.md), [rebellion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion.md)

> Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?

[Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 157 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/man-always-kills.md)

Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> And all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got weaker and the things still stood.

[Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md) · [The Naked and the Dead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/the-naked-and-the-dead.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/the-naked-and-the-dead/and-all-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> “We shouldn't have been so scornful; we should have had compassion. But compassion takes work, and we were young.”

[Margaret Atwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood.md) · [The Year of the Flood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood/we-shouldnt-have.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [compassion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion.md)

> I’ve heard it said that the happiest times in our lives is the period when pop songs really mean something to us, really get to us. It may be true. Or maybe not. Pop songs may, after all, be nothing but pop songs. And perhaps our lives are merely decorative, expendable items, a burst of fleeting color and nothing more.

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [First Person Singular](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/first-person-singular.md) · p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/first-person-singular/ive-heard-it-said.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [music](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music.md)

> Only the dead stay seventeen forever.

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [Norwegian Wood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/norwegian-wood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/norwegian-wood/only-the-dead.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> And fourteen—fourteen is such a fearful age, when you find out so fast what you’re capable of being, but also what a toll the world expects.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [Orsinian Tales](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/orsinian-tales.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/orsinian-tales/and-fourteen-fourteen-is-such.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

[J.M. Barrie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie.md) · [Peter Pan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie/peter-pan.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie/peter-pan/im-youth-im-joy.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> “Since when is speaking the truth presumptuous?”
>
> “You are young, aren’t you?”

[Steven Erikson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson.md) · [Gardens Of The Moon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/gardens-of-the-moon.md) · p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/gardens-of-the-moon/since-when-is-speaking.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequence of an unnatural beginning.

[Jane Austen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen.md) · [Persuasion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/persuasion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/persuasion/she-had-been.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [caution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/caution.md)

> Naturally, grown-up citizens are concerned about the beatniks and delinquents. … The question is why the grownups do not, more soberly, draw the same conclusions as the youth. Or, since no doubt many people are quite clear about the connection that the structure of society that has becoming increasingly dominant in our country is disastrous to the growth of excellence and manliness, why don’t more people speak up and say so?

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/naturally-grown-up-citizens.md)

Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is hard to grow up in a society in which one’s important problems are treated as nonexistent. It is impossible to belong to it, it is hard to fight to change it.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/it-is-hard.md)

Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Thwarted, or starved, in the important objects proper to young capacities, the boys and young men naturally find or invent deviant objects for themselves. … Their choices and inventions are rarely charming, usually stupid, and often disastrous; we cannot expect average kids to deviate with genius. But on the other hand, the young men who conform to the dominant society become for the most part apathetic, disappointed, cynical and wasted.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 13 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/thwarted-or-starved.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md)

> In such an environment there operates an unfortunate natural selection. Since not only the rewards but also the means and opportunities of public activity belong to the organized system, a bright boy will try to get ahead in it. He will do well in school, keep out of trouble, and apply for the right jobs. It would follow from this that the organized system is sparked by a good proportion of the bright boys, and so it is. On the other hand, in sheer self-protection, smart boys who are sensitive, have strong animal spirits or great souls, cannot play that game. There are two alternative possibilities: (1) Either the advantages of the organized system cause them to inhibit their powers, and they turn into cynical pushers or obsessional specialists or timid hard workers that make up the middle status of the system. Or (2) their natural virtues and perhaps alternative training are too strong and they become independents; but as such they are hard put, not so much hard put for money as for means to act; and so they are likely to become bitter, eccentric, etc., and so much the less effective in changing the system they disapprove

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 157 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/in-such-an-environment.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md)

> During childhood, they played games with fierce intensity, giving themselves as sacrifice to the game, for play was the chief business of growth, finding and making themselves in the world. Now when they are too old merely to play, to what shall they give themselves with fierce intensity? They cannot play for recreation, since they have not been used up. … Since each activity is not interesting to begin with, its value does not deepen and it does not bear much repetition. … In these circumstances, the inevitable tendency is to raise the ante of the compulsive useless activity.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 42 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/during-childhood-they.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [play](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play.md)

> In a milieu of resignation, where the young men think of society as a closed room in which there are no values but the rejected rat race, … it is extremely hard to aim at objective truth or world culture. One’s own products are likely to be personal or parochial.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 179 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/in-a-milieu.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Boys today hardly aspire to immortal honor, the honor of self-fulfilling achievement. It is highly disapproved of in the code of the organized system. Instead, they devote themselves to protecting their “personal honor” against insults; and conversely they dream of the transient notoriety which will prove that they are “somebody,” which they doubt. The personal honor that they protect does not include truthfulness, honesty, public usefulness, integrity, independence, or virtues like that. A reputation for these things does not win respect, it has no publicity value; it’s believed to be phony anyway, and if it’s true, the person is hard to get along with.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 150 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/boys-today-hardly.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [honour](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour.md)

> It is desperately hard these days for an average child to grow up to be a man, for our present organized system does not want men. They are not safe.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) · p. 14 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/it-is-desperately.md)

Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> One of the things that is most striking about the young generation is that they never talk about their own futures, there are no futures for this generation, not any of them and so naturally they never think of them. It is very striking, they do not live in the present they just live, as well as they can, and they do not plan. It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for a future, none at all. It certainly is extraordinary, but it is certainly true.

[Gertrude Stein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein.md) · [Wars I Have Seen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen/one-of-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md)

> [Youth] is only being in a way like it might be an animal. No, it is not just like being an animal so much as being like one of these malenky toys you viddy being sold in the streets, like little chellovecks made out of tin and with a spring inside and then a winding handle on the outside and you wind it up grrr grrr grrr and off it itties, like walking, O my brothers. But it itties in a straight line and bangs straight into things bang bang and it cannot help what it is doing. Being young is like being like one of these malenky machines.

[Anthony Burgess](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess.md) · [A Clockwork Orange](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/youth-is-only.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Youth instinctively understand the present environment – the electric drama. It lives mythically and in depth.

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [The Medium is the Massage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage/youth-instinctively-understand.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> During our youth, there is something in us that is better than ourselves, I mean better than our desires, our pleasures, our yieldings, and our inclinations. Our soul is good then, even though our intelligence and will are not.

[Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert.md) · [The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/during-our-youth.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul.md)

> When I see young people such as those of our day, I think that Heaven wishes to destroy the world.

[Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert.md) · [The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/when-i-see.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Ask the young. They know everything.

[Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert.md) · [The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/ask-the-young.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Even if teen-age children aren't making a sound, it's quieter when they're gone. They put a boiling in the air around them. As they left, the whole house seemed to sigh and settle. No wonder poltergeists infest only houses with adolescent children.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [The Winter of Our Discontent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-winter-of-our-discontent.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-winter-of-our-discontent/even-if-teen-age.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations.

[Franz Kafka](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka.md) · [The Complete Stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka/the-complete-stories.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka/the-complete-stories/ours-is-a-lost.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Every generation is its own secret society.

[Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md) · [Green Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars.md) · p. 480 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/every-generation-is-its.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> He did not consider the possibility of his own death. At his age, death was still something that happened to other people.

[Robert Silverberg](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg.md) · [The Man In The Maze](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-man-in-the-maze.md) · p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-man-in-the-maze/he-did-not.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> A young man who is unable to commit a folly is already an old man.

[Paul Gauguin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin.md) · [The Writings Of A Savage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin/the-writings-of-a-savage.md) · p. 68 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin/the-writings-of-a-savage/a-young-man.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> [Janice] Looking back from this distance, she can't think any more that Harry was all to blame for their early troubles, he had just been trying life on too: life and sex and making babies and finding out who you are.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Rabbit Remembered](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered/janice-looking-back.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [marriage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage.md)

> Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth’s many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more, and float upward in our heedlessness, singing Gratia Dei sum quod sum.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Self-Consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness/looking-foolish-does.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Salterton Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/students-today-are.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Most adolescents are destructive, I suppose, but the worst are certainly those who justify what they do with a half-baked understanding of somebody's philosophy.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Deptford Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/most-adolescents-are.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md)

> The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Salterton Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/the-young-are.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md)

> When irony first makes itself known in a young man's life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cunning Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man/when-irony-first.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md)

> Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamour — of youth!... A flick of sunshine upon a strange shore, the time to remember, the time for a sigh, and — goodbye! — Night — Goodbye!

[Joseph Conrad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad.md) · [Youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/youth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/youth/only-a-moment.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more — the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort — to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires — and expires, too soon — too soon before life itself.

[Joseph Conrad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad.md) · [Youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/youth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/youth/i-remember-my-youth.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md)

> That body is still new to her, she's still trying it out, thinking it through, a bit like a kid walking the streets with a loaded gun and deciding whether he's packing it to protect himself or to begin a life of crime.

[Philip Roth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth.md) · [The Dying Animal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-dying-animal.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-dying-animal/that-body-is-still.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the body](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-body.md)

> You rebel against the tribal and look for the individual, for your own voice as against the stereotypical voice of the tribe or the tribe's stereotype of itself. You have to establish yourself against your predecessor, and doing so can well involve what they like to call self-hatred. I happen to think that — all those protestations notwithstanding — your self hatred was real and a positive force in its very destructiveness. Since to build something new often requires that something else be destroyed, self-hatred is valuable for a young person. What should he or she have instead — self-approval, self-satisfaction, self-praise? It's not so bad to hate the norms that keep a society from moving on, especially when the norms are dictated by fear as much as by anything else and especially when that fear is of the enemy forces of the overwhelming majority. But you seem now to be so strongly motivated by a need for reconciliation with the tribe that you aren't even willing to acknowledge how disapproving of its platitudinous demands you were back then, however ineluctably Jewish you may also have felt. The prodigal son who once upset the tribal balance — and perhaps even invigorated the tribe's health — may well, in his old age, have a sentimental urge to go back home, but isn't this a bit premature in you, aren't you really too young to have it so fully developed?

[Philip Roth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth.md) · [The Facts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-facts.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-facts/you-rebel-against.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [rebellion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion.md)

> Yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.

[Jane Austen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen.md) · [Sense and Sensibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/sense-and-sensibility.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/sense-and-sensibility/yet-there-is-something.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [prejudice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice.md)

> "I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail."

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Starship Troopers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers.md) · p. 120 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-told-you.md)

Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Matt, you are suffering from a disease of youth—you expect moral problems to have nice, neat, black-and-white answers.

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Space Cadet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/space-cadet.md) · p. 126 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/space-cadet/matt-you-are.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> clique maintenance - the need of one generation to see the generation following it as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego: "Kids today do nothing. They're so apathetic. We used to go out and protest. All they do is shop and complain." (page 21)

[Douglas Coupland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland.md) · [Generation X](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x/clique-maintenance-the.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> 'The modern young man,' said Aunt Dahlia, 'is a congenital idiot and wants a nurse to lead him by the hand and some strong attendant to kick him regularly at intervals of a quarter of an hour.'

[P.G. Wodehouse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse.md) · [Very Good, Jeeves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse/very-good-jeeves.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse/very-good-jeeves/the-modern-young.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Boyhood, like measles, is one of those complaints which a man should catch young and have done with, for when it comes in middle life it is apt to be serious.

[P.G. Wodehouse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse.md) · [The Adventures of Sally](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse/the-adventures-of-sally.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pg-wodehouse/the-adventures-of-sally/boyhood-like-measles.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Kindness and intelligence are the preoccupations of age. Being cruel and thoughtless is far more fascinating when you’re twenty.

[Ray Bradbury](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury.md) · [Dandelion Wine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/dandelion-wine.md) · p. 147 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/dandelion-wine/kindness-and-intelligence.md)

Topics: [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> “I don’t know,” he admitted.
>
> “Well.” She started pouring tea. “To start things off, what do you think of the world?”
>
> “I don’t know anything.”
>
> “The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.”
>
> “You seem to have learned quite a lot over the years.”
>
> “It is the privilege of old people to seem to know everything. But it’s an act and a mask, like every other act and mask. Between ourselves, we old ones wink at each other and smile, saying, How do you like my mask, my act, my certainty? Isn’t life a play? Don’t I play it well?”
>
> They both laughed quietly.

[Ray Bradbury](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury.md) · [Dandelion Wine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/dandelion-wine.md) · p. 142 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/dandelion-wine/i-dont-know.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant... History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of 'history' it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turnoff to take when I got to the other end... but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: no doubt at all about that... There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning... And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave... So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

[Hunter S. Thompson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson.md) · [Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/it-seems-like.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> There would be other summers, but there would never be one like this. Ever again.
>
> Better make the most of it, then.

[Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [Good Omens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens/there-would-be-other.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [the present moment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment.md)

> What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Palm Sunday](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/palm-sunday.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/palm-sunday/what-should-young.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md)

> Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Bed of Procrustes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes.md) · p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/modernity-we-created.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [heroism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism.md)

> Decomposition, for most, starts when they leave the free, social, and uncorrupted college life for the solitary confinement of professions and nuclear families.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Bed of Procrustes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/decomposition-for-most.md)

Topics: [work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [family](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family.md)

> We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth,
>
> We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung,
>
> And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth.
>
> God help us, for we knew the worst too young!

[Rudyard Kipling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling.md) · [Barrack-Room Ballads](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/barrack-room-ballads.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/barrack-room-ballads/we-have-done.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Nafai knew the rule: when a man acts like a child, he's boyish, and everyone's delighted; when a boy acts the same way, he's childish, and everyone tells him to be a man.

[Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md) · [The Memory Of Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/nafai-knew-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The world is always full of brilliant youth which fades into grey and embittered middle age: the first flowering takes everything. The great men are those who have developed slowly, or who have been able to survive the glamour of their early florescence and to go on learning from life.

[Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [Not Under Forty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/not-under-forty.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/not-under-forty/the-world-is-always.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md), [genius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/genius.md)

> It is scarcely exaggeration to say that if one is not a little mad about Balzac at twenty, one will never live; and if at forty one can still take Rastignac and Lucien de Rubempre at Balzac's own estimate, one has lived in vain.

[Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [Not Under Forty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/not-under-forty.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/not-under-forty/it-is-scarcely.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> His misfortune was that he loved youth — he was weak to it, it kindled him. If there was one eager eye, one doubting, critical mind, one lively curiosity in a whole lecture-room full of commonplace boys and girls, he was its servant. That ardour could command him. It hadn't worn out with years, this responsiveness, any more than the magnetic currents wear out; it had nothing to do with Time.

[Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [The Professor's House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/the-professors-house.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/the-professors-house/his-misfortune-was.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [teachers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/teachers.md)

> When we look back, the only things we cherish are those which in some way met our original want; the desire which formed in us in early youth, undirected, and of its own accord.

[Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [The Song Of The Lark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/the-song-of-the-lark.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/the-song-of-the-lark/when-we-look.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [desire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire.md)

> There was about Alexandra something of the impervious calm of the fatalist, always disconcerting to very young people, who cannot feel that the heart lives at all unless it is still at the mercy of storms; unless its strings can scream to the touch of pain.

[Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [O Pioneers!](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers/there-was-about.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [peace of mind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace-of-mind.md)

> Every generation wants to be the last. Every generation hates the next trend in music they can't understand. We hate to give up the reins of our culture. To find our own music playing in elevators. The ballad for our revolution, turned into background music for a television commercial. To find our generation's clothes and hair suddenly retro.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/every-generation-wants.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [music](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music.md)

> Young people -it is obvious -cannot achieve such a relationship, but they can, if they understand their life properly, grow up slowly to such happiness and prepare themselves for it. They must not forget, when they love, that they are beginners, bunglers of life, apprentices in love- must learn love, and that like all learning wants peace, patience, and composure.

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke.md) · [Letters to a Young Poet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet/young-people-it-is-obvious.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [patience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patience.md)

> Young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it.

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke.md) · [Letters to a Young Poet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet/young-people-who.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> "Eh, Manuel, and will you re-model the world?"
>
> "Who knows?" says Manuel, in the high pride of his youth. "At all events, I do not mean to leave it unaltered."

[James Branch Cabell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell.md) · [Figures of Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/figures-of-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/figures-of-earth/eh-manuel-and.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md)

> "The Poet had, who had made a show of attaching no importance to this literary game (though it gnawed at his heart that he himself had not written such beautiful letters, provoking replies even more beautiful), and having no one with whom to fall in love, had fallen in love with the letters themselves — which, as Niketas remarked with a smile — was not surprising, since in youth we are prone to fall in love with love.

[Umberto Eco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco.md) · [Baudolino](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco/baudolino.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco/baudolino/the-poet-had.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [falling in love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/falling-in-love.md)

> No, I never wish that. I don't intend to die till I've enjoyed my life. Everyone has a right to happiness and sooner or later I will have it. Youth, health and freedom were meant to be enjoyed and I want to try every pleasure before I am too old to enjoy them.

[Louisa May Alcott](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louisa-may-alcott.md) · [A Long Fatal Love Chase](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louisa-may-alcott/a-long-fatal-love-chase.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louisa-may-alcott/a-long-fatal-love-chase/no-i-never.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [pleasure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pleasure.md)

> The young always have the same problem — how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this problem by defying their elders and copying each other.

[Quentin Crisp](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp.md) · [The Naked Civil Servant](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant/the-young-always.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md), [rebellion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion.md)

> Exhibitionism is like a drug. Hooked in adolescence I was now taking doses so massive they would have killed a novice.

[Quentin Crisp](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp.md) · [The Naked Civil Servant](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant/exhibitionism-is-like.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [attention](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/attention.md)

> As long as there is life, every ending is a beginning. And I would save humankind, even from itself. This is why no death in the perpetuation of humankind can be a complete failure. This is why a birth touches us so deeply. This is why the most tragic death is the death of a youth.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [God Emperor of Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/as-long-as-there.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [birth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth.md)

> Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist — a master — and that is what Auguste Rodin was — can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is… and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be…. and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart…. no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired — but it does to them. Look at her!

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Stranger in a Strange Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/anybody-can-look.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> "I am the most miserable person who ever lived", he said to the Lord Primus, when they stopped to feed the horses feedbags of damp oats.
>
> "You are young, and in love", said Primus. "Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived".

[Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [Stardust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/stardust.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/stardust/i-am-the.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> "You kids think you invented sex," my mother was fond of saying. But hadn't we? With no instruction manual or federally enforced training period, didn't we all come away feeling we'd discovered something unspeakably modern? What produced in others a feeling of exhilaration left Jason and me with a mortifying sense of guilt. We fled the room as if, in our fumblings, we had uncapped some virus we still might escape if we ran fast enough. Had one of the counselors not caught me scaling the fence, I felt certain I could have made it back to Raleigh by morning, skittering across the surface of the ocean like one of those lizards often featured on television wildlife programs.

[David Sedaris](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris.md) · [Naked](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/naked.md) · p. 106 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/naked/you-kids-think.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex.md), [guilt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt.md)

> Youth is like spring, an overpraised season.

[Samuel Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler.md) · [The Way of All Flesh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/the-way-of-all-flesh.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/the-way-of-all-flesh/youth-is-like.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [Middlemarch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/if-youth-is-the.md)

Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> She and Stephen were in that stage of courtship which makes the most exquisite moment of youth, the freshest blossom-time of passion, — when each is sure of the other's love, but no formal declaration has been made, and all is mutual divination, exalting the most trivial word, the lightest gesture, into thrills delicate and delicious as wafted jasmine scent.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [The Mill on the Floss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/she-and-stephen.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [falling in love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/falling-in-love.md)

> Such young unfurrowed souls roll to meet each other like two velvet peaches that touch softly and are at rest; they mingle as easily as two brooklets that ask for nothing but to entwine themselves and ripple with ever-interlacing curves in the leafiest hiding-places.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [Adam Bede](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede/such-young-unfurrowed.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> ... even in the folly of youth we know that nothing lasts, but ... even in that folly we are afraid that maybe Nothing will last, that maybe Nothing will last forever, and anything is better than Nothing.... So now, as another poet sings, That Fancy passed me by And nothing will remain; which, praise the gods, is a damned lie since, praise, O gods! Nothing cannot remain anywhere since nothing is vacuum and vacuum is paradox and unbearable and we will have nothing of it even if we would, the damned-fool poet's Nothing.

[William Faulkner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner.md) · [The Town](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/the-town.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/the-town/even-in-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [emptiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emptiness.md)

> "Weep," said Athos, "weep, heart full of love, youth, and life! Alas, would I could weep like you!"

[Alexandre Dumas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas.md) · [The Three Musketeers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers/weep-said-athos.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> You are young, and your bitter recollections have time to change themselves into sweet remembrances."

[Alexandre Dumas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas.md) · [The Three Musketeers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers/you-are-young.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The only thing the young should be taught is that there is virtually nothing to be hoped for from life. One dreams of a Catalogue of Disappointments which would include all the disillusionments reserved for each and every one of us, to be posted in the schools.

[Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/the-only-thing.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> What I know at sixty, I knew as well at twenty. Forty years of a long, a superfluous, labor of verification.

[Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/what-i-know.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md)

> When we are young, we take a certain pleasure in our infirmities. They seem so new, so rich! With age, they no longer surprise us, we know them too well. Now, without anything unexpected in them, they do not deserve to be endured.

[Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/when-we-are.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [illness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness.md)

> But whither am I going? O Emile! what art thou now? Is this my pupil? How art thou fallen! Where is that young man so sternly fashioned, who braved all weathers, who devoted his body to the hardest tasks and his soul to the laws of wisdom; untouched by prejudice or passion, a lover of truth, swayed by reason only, unheeding all that was not hers? Living in softness and idleness he now lets himself be ruled by women; their amusements are the business of his life, their wishes are his laws; a young girl is the arbiter of his fate, he cringes and grovels before her; the earnest Emile is the plaything of a child. So shift the scenes of life; each age is swayed by its own motives, but the man is the same. At ten his mind was set upon cakes, at twenty it is set upon his mistress; at thirty it will be set upon pleasure; at forty on ambition, at fifty on avarice; when will he seek after wisdom only? Happy is he who is compelled to follow her against his will! What matter who is the guide, if the end is attained. Heroes and sages have themselves paid tribute to this human weakness; and those who handled the distaff with clumsy fingers were none the less great men.
>
> The great mistake of tutors and still more of fathers is to think that one way of living makes another impossible, and that as soon as the child is grown up, you must abandon everything you used to do when he was little. If that were so, why should we take such pains in childhood, since the good or bad use we make of it will vanish with childhood itself; if another way of life were necessarily accompanied by other ways of thinking?

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/but-whither-am-i-going.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md)

> I fear that these little saints who have been forced to spend their childhood in prayers to God will pass their youth in another fashion; when they are married they will try to make up for lost time. I think we must consider age as well as sex; a young girl should not live like her grandmother; she should be lively, merry, and eager; she should sing and dance to her heart's content, and enjoy all the innocent pleasures of youth; the time will come, all too soon, when she must settle down and adopt a more serious tone.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/i-fear-that.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> If I were young, I would seek the pleasures of youth; and as I would have them at their best I would not seek them in the guise of a rich man. If I were at my present age, it would be another matter; I would wisely confine myself to the pleasures of my age; I would form tastes which I could enjoy, and I would stifle those which could only cause suffering. I would not go and offer my grey beard to the scornful jests of young girls; I could never bear to sicken them with my disgusting caresses, to furnish them at my expense with the most absurd stories, to imagine them describing the vile pleasures of the old ape, so as to avenge themselves for what they had endured. But if habits unresisted had changed my former desires into needs, I would perhaps satisfy those needs, but with shame and blushes. I would distinguish between passion and necessity, I would find a suitable mistress and would keep to her. I would not make a business of my weakness, and above all I would only have one person aware of it. Life has other pleasures when these fail us; by hastening in vain after those that fly us, we deprive ourselves of those that remain.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/if-i-were.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [pleasure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pleasure.md)

> Remember that to guide a grown man you must reverse all that you did to guide the child. Do not hesitate to speak to him of those dangerous mysteries which you have so carefully concealed from him hitherto. Since he must become aware of them, let him not learn them from another, nor from himself, but from you alone; since he must henceforth fight against them, let him know his enemy, that he may not be taken unawares.
>
> What makes me most confident in my method is this: when I follow it out as closely as possible, I find no situation in the life of my scholar which does not leave me some pleasing memory of him. Even when he is carried away by his ardent temperament or when he revolts against the hand that guides him, when he struggles and is on the point of escaping from me, I still find his first simplicity in his agitation and his anger; his heart as pure as his body, he has no more knowledge of pretence than of vice; reproach and scorn have not made a coward of him; base fears have never taught him the art of concealment. He has all the indiscretion of innocence; he is absolutely out-spoken; he does not even know the use of deceit. Every impulse of his heart is betrayed either by word or look, and I often know what he is feeling before he is aware of it himself.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/remember-that-to-guide.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [honesty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty.md), [upbringing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing.md)

> In the fire of adolescence the life-giving spirits, retained in the blood and distilled again and again, inspire his young heart with a warmth which glows in his eye, a warmth which is felt in his words and perceived in his actions. The lofty feeling with which he is inspired gives him strength and nobility; imbued with tender love for mankind his words betray the thoughts of his heart; I know not how it is, but there is more charm in his open-hearted generosity than in the artificial eloquence of others; or rather this eloquence of his is the only true eloquence, for he has only to show what he feels to make others share his feelings.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/in-the-fire.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [honesty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty.md), [enthusiasm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/enthusiasm.md)

> For the reasons just stated, I consider that by the means I have indicated and others like them the young man's desires may be kept in ignorance and his senses pure up to the age of twenty. This is so true that among the Germans a young man who lost his virginity before that age was considered dishonoured; and the writers justly attribute the vigour of constitution and the number of children among the Germans to the continence of these nations during youth.
>
> This period may be prolonged still further, and a few centuries ago nothing was more common even in France. Among other well-known examples, Montaigne's father, a man no less scrupulously truthful than strong and healthy, swore that his was a virgin marriage at three and thirty, and he had served for a long time in the Italian wars. We may see in the writings of his son what strength and spirit were shown by the father when he was over sixty.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/for-the-reasons.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger. I divert his senses by other objects of sense; I trace another course for his spirits by which I distract them from the course they would have taken; it is by bodily exercise and hard work that I check the activity of the imagination, which was leading him astray. When the arms are hard at work, the imagination is quiet; when the body is very weary, the passions are not easily inflamed. The quickest and easiest precaution is to remove him from immediate danger. At once I take him away from towns, away from things which might lead him into temptation.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/reading-solitude-idleness.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [temptation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/temptation.md)

> The first sentiment of which the well-trained youth is capable is not love but friendship. The first work of his rising imagination is to make known to him his fellows; the species affects him before the sex. Here is another advantage to be gained from prolonged innocence; you may take advantage of his dawning sensibility to sow the first seeds of humanity in the heart of the young adolescent. This advantage is all the greater because this is the only time in his life when such efforts may be really successful.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-first-sentiment.md)

Topics: [friendship](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Passions of this kind, not having any germ in the child's heart, cannot spring up in it of themselves; it is we who sow the seeds, and they never take root unless by our fault. Not so with the young man; they will find an entrance in spite of us. It is therefore time to change our methods.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/passions-of-this.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [passion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion.md)

> A young man, on the other hand, brought up in happy innocence, is drawn by the first stirrings of nature to the tender and affectionate passions; his warm heart is touched by the sufferings of his fellow-creatures; he trembles with delight when he meets his comrade, his arms can embrace tenderly, his eyes can shed tears of pity; he learns to be sorry for offending others through his shame at causing annoyance. If the eager warmth of his blood makes him quick, hasty, and passionate, a moment later you see all his natural kindness of heart in the eagerness of his repentance; he weeps, he groans over the wound he has given; he would atone for the blood he has shed with his own; his anger dies away, his pride abases itself before the consciousness of his wrong-doing. Is he the injured party, in the height of his fury an excuse, a word, disarms him; he forgives the wrongs of others as whole-heartedly as he repairs his own. Adolescence is not the age of hatred or vengeance; it is the age of pity, mercy, and generosity. Yes, I maintain, and I am not afraid of the testimony of experience, a youth of good birth, one who has preserved his innocence up to the age of twenty, is at that age the best, the most generous, the most loving, and the most lovable of men. You never heard such a thing; I can well believe that philosophers such as you, brought up among the corruption of the public schools, are unaware of it.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/a-young-man-on.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [compassion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion.md), [forgiveness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness.md)

> To know how far a happy ignorance may prolong the innocence of children, you must live among rude and simple people. It is a sight both touching and amusing to see both sexes, left to the protection of their own hearts, continuing the sports of childhood in the flower of youth and beauty, showing by their very familiarity the purity of their pleasures. When at length those delightful young people marry, they bestow on each other the first fruits of their person, and are all the dearer therefore. Swarms of strong and healthy children are the pledges of a union which nothing can change, and the fruit of the virtue of their early years.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/to-know-how.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> This interval in which the strength of the individual is in excess of his wants is, as I have said, relatively though not absolutely the time of greatest strength. It is the most precious time in his life; it comes but once; it is very short, all too short, as you will see when you consider the importance of using it aright.
>
> This is the time for work, instruction, and inquiry. And note that this is no arbitrary choice of mine, it is the way of nature herself. Human intelligence is finite, and not only can no man know everything, he cannot even acquire all the scanty knowledge of others. Since the contrary of every false proposition is a truth, there are as many truths as falsehoods. We must, therefore, choose what to teach as well as when to teach it. Some of the information within our reach is false, some is useless, some merely serves to puff up its possessor. The small store which really contributes to our welfare alone deserves the study of a wise man, and therefore of a child whom one would have wise. He must know not merely what is, but what is useful.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/this-interval-in-which.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

[William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [The Summing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up.md) · p. 290 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/old-age-is-ready.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> "Aren't you missing a lot of fun? You know, one's young for such a little while."

[William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [Christmas Holiday](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/christmas-holiday.md) · p. 43 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/christmas-holiday/arent-you-missing.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [play](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play.md)

> By the time I was twenty-four I had constructed a complete system of philosophy. It rested on two principles: The Relativity of Things and The Circumferentiality of Man. I have since discovered that the first was not a very original discovery. It may be that the other was profound, but though I have racked my brains I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

[William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [The Summing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/by-the-time.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md)

> ...when you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right...

[William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [Cakes And Ale](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/cakes-and-ale.md) · p. 166 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/cakes-and-ale/when-you-are.md)

Topics: [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.

[William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [Of Human Bondage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/of-human-bondage.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/of-human-bondage/it-is-an-illusion.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions.md)

> The young whites, and blacks, too, are the only hope that America has, the rest of us have always been living in a lie.

[Malcolm X](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-x.md) · [The Autobiography of Malcolm X](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-x/the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-x/the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x/the-young-whites.md)

Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Gordon and his friends had quite an exciting time with their 'subversive ideas'. For a whole year they ran an unofficial monthly paper called the Bolshevik, duplicated with jellygraph. It advocated Socialism, free love, the dismemberment of the British Empire, the abolition of the Army and Navy, and so on and so forth. It was great fun. Every intelligent boy of sixteen is a Socialist. At that age one does not see the hook sticking out of the rather stodgy bait.

[George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Keep the Aspidistra Flying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/keep-the-aspidistra-flying.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/keep-the-aspidistra-flying/gordon-and-his.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It is not very difficult to write for teenagers if you avoid thinking of them as children. I do not simplify my vocabulary for them, though I often add the pronunciations of the technical terms, merely to reduce the terror they inspire visually. I do avoid sentences that are too long and complex and I do not indulge in obscure illusions. What is lacking in a teenager is not intelligence or reasoning ability, but merely experience.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 525 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/it-is-not.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> Yet even mathematicians must be young to begin with.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 10 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/yet-even-mathematicians.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> It was good to be alive; it was better to be young; it was best of all to be in love.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 284 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/it-was-good.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> That night when he went back to his hotel, he wept for his dead children and all the other castrated boys, for his own lost youth, for those who were young no longer and those who died young, for those who fought for Salvador Allende and those who were too scared to fight.

[Roberto Bolaño](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano.md) · [Last Evenings On Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano/last-evenings-on-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roberto-bolano/last-evenings-on-earth/that-night-when.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [loss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss.md)

> I thought that young people had more problems than old people, and I hoped I could last until I was older so I wouldn't have all those problems. Then I looked around and saw that everybody who looked young had young problems and that everybody who looked old had old problems. The "old" problems to me looked easier to take than the "young" problems. So I decided to go gray so nobody would know now old I was and I would look younger to them than how old they thought I was. I would gain a lot by going gray: (1) I would have old problems, which were easier to take than young problems, (2) everyone would be impressed by how young I looked, and (3) I would be relieved of the responsibility of acting young—I could occasionally lapse into eccentricity or senility and no one would think anything of it because of my gray hair. When you've got gray hair, every move you make seems "young" and "spry," instead of just being normally active. It's like you're getting a new talent. So I dyed my hair gray when I was about twenty-three or twenty-four.

[Andy Warhol](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andy-warhol.md) · [The Philosophy of Andy Warhol](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andy-warhol/the-philosophy-of-andy-warhol.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andy-warhol/the-philosophy-of-andy-warhol/i-thought-that.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)

> The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It's only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations [...].

[Saki](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki.md) · [The Complete Short Stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki/the-complete-short-stories.md) · spoken by Reginald · Reginald · Reginald at the Carlton · p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki/the-complete-short-stories/the-young-have-aspirations-that-never-come-to.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md)